There are two ends of the spectrum when it comes to the golf swing. One one end you have the feel player. This individual is guided by an athletic touch and personal sense of the game. On the other end of the spectrum you have the analytical player. This golfer relies heavily on numbers and qualitative analysis to guide their efforts. To use a professional example, Bubba Watson would fall on the feel end of the spectrum and someone like Bryson Dechambeau would end up on the analytical end. The majority of golfers will end up somewhere in the middle of this spectrum with a mix of mechanics and feel guiding them.
As a player that relies predominantly on feel, I have placed little value in things like ball speed and spin rates over the years. I focused my concerns on simply finding my drive and honing my touch with my 8 iron. So when it came time to visit Club Champion and let the golf numbers help me to decide my next driver, I moved forward with a skeptical mindset.
Would an analytical approach to a feel player’s game make a difference?
With more than 90 locations across america, Club Champion is the nation’s #1 club fitter. The world’s most qualified experts will handcraft every club in your bag to help you play to your highest potential. In simple terms, Club Champion is the champion of club fitting.
The key to finding the best fit is to be brand agnostic. Without being tied to a specific brand, Club Champion is able to focus on getting the exact equipment that works best for each individual golfer. This agnostic approach puts 50,000 head, shaft and grip combinations on the table. Relax, Club Champion will do the work of narrowing it down for you.
A plethora of shiny new shafts and grips await the customer at Club Champion.
In order to get an accurate reading on ball speed, spin rate and shot dispersion, you have to hit a lot of golf balls. Since I was only getting fit for a new driver, my workload was drastically reduced. I would still hit around 150 drives in order to get a large sampling with each piece of equipment.
We started with my existing driver setup to get a baseline and then moved on to finding the ideal shaft. I tried about 5 different shafts and was surprised at how much of a difference each one made. After honing in on the perfect shaft, we dialed in the driver head. Look and feel is just as important to me here as anything else and I wanted to make sure that I was getting both great numbers on a driver that I felt a connection to. I tried about 5 or so different driver heads that caught my attention.
From shot to shot, the major difference in performance is that particular golf swing. However, as the data begins to compile, you start to see trends emerging. Different shafts spin less, some driver heads launch higher, and you can begin to see what combination works best. For the most part I focused on hitting good consistent shots and let my club fitter do his thing. The entire process took a little over an hour.
After all of the data was compiled I had a clear winning combination emerge. I ended up with the Hzrdus smoke green shaft AKA “Hulk Shaft” and the Titleist TSi2 driver head. This combination launched ideally, spun far less and had a much tighter dispersion than my existing driver. I also gained about 8 yards on average overall distance.
Would an analytical approach to a feel player’s game make a difference?
The game plan at Club Champion is not simply a mechanical one. The strategy is to let the numbers guide you in the right direction and then let you make a selection based on all of the given information. Feel matters in this equation and that was made clear to me during the process. I got a new driver that I am wildly happy with and having the numbers simply confirmed my feelings.
Confirm your feelings with Club Champion today.